Tag Archives: Samsung Vibrant 4G

Remember the T-Mobile branded Vibrant 4G whose specs leaked out a couple of weeks ago? Today, T-Mobile and Samsung have officially announced the device. The name of the handset has changed from Vibrant 4G to Galaxy S 4G, though.

The Galaxy S 4G will be the first handset being announced by T-Mobile which will take the full advantage of the carrier’s 4G network and offer download speeds of up to 21Mbps.

The Galaxy S 4G is very similar to the Samsung Vibrant. The Galaxy S 4G has the same 4-inch SAMOLED screen with WVGA resolution as found on the Vibrant. The 4G sports the same internals as the Vibrant does a 1 GHz Hummingbird processor, a PowerVR SGX540 graphics core and 512MB of RAM.

The back of the phone sports a 5MP camera without an LED flash. The Galaxy S 4G also sports a front-facing camera for video calling, which the Vibrant lacks. The Galaxy S 4G runs on Android 2.2 unlike the Samsung Vibrant.

There has been a lot of controversy about the Android 2.2 Froyo update for all the Galaxy S variants in the United States including the T-Mobile branded Samsung Vibrant. First, it looked like the update was being held back by Samsung so as to force’ its users to buy the upcoming Vibrant 4G.

Later on, rumors started flowing around that Samsung wanted to charge the carriers for the update and thus there was a tiff between (Samsung and carriers) them which was delaying the update. Samsung squished all the above rumors in an email and promised to release more information about the delay behind the update soon.

Now, T-Mobile has announced that they will start rolling out the Android 2.2 update for the Vibrant owners beginning from today i.e. 21st January itself. Since the update will be rolled out in an OTA form and in batches so Vibrant owners need to be patient for the update to hit their phones.

Hopefully, the carrier will keep its word and start rolling out the update from today itself.

Another U.S carrier Sprint has also announced that they are working on the Android 2.2 update for the Samsung Epic 4G. The carrier and the Korean company are working hard to release the update ASAP’ but will release it only after it meets all the rigorous’ testing standard of Sprint.

Hopefully, Sprint will also release the Android 2.2 update for the Epic 4G before the end of this month.

The folks over at AndroidSpin have received a tip from a very reliable source which says that Samsung is intentionally holding back the Android 2.2 update for the Vibrant. According to the tipster, Samsung has a fully functional Android 2.2 OTA for the Vibrant ready to be pushed to the owners but the company is not doing so.

The reason behind this move is that the update will affect the sales of the upcoming Vibrant 4G which runs on Android 2.2 and features 4G and a front facing video camera.

Below is what the tipster exactly said-:

Some disturbing things have happened the last week or so concerning our Vibrant. Samsung has NOT allowed us to push the update OTA for 2.2 because they feel it will decrease the value of the upcoming Vibrant4G +. While from a marketing aspect i totally understand, as the Vibrant 4G is what the original Vibrant should have been in the 1st place. But to shun off and bold face lie to customers is NOT what T-Mobile is about.

â€¦Being that, Vibrant 4G and Vibrant have exactly same stats, added FFC and a new movie and the 4G. But i will tell you this, the original vibrant CAN utilize 4G FULLY. Yes FULLY. not what they are telling you.

If this news is true, then Samsung is surely in knee deep trouble. Selling millions of handsets is not going to work for a long time; you need to keep the existing customers happy with Android updates as well. This will make sure that the existing customers remain happy and will make them brand loyal as well. Looks like Samsung is unable to understand this simple logic here.

However, I think T-Mobile should also be blamed here. The carrier can easily force’ Samsung to release the Android 2.2 update for the Vibrant owners but the company is not doing so. It is even possible that it is T-Mobile and not Samsung who are holding back the Android 2.2 update for the Vibrant.

After all, Samsung has released the Android 2.2 update for the Galaxy S handsets in all over the world including the Vibrant for the T-Mobile UK network. In fact, the Vibrant 4G has not even been announced yet. Holding back the Android 2.2 update for an unreleased phone does seem a bit impractical to me.

What do you think especially T-Mobile Vibrant owners? Do let us know your views by dropping in a comment.